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Latin America
Due to the varied meanings of the term “postcolonialism,” there is a dispute regarding the relevancy for postcolonial studies for Latin America, which has resulted in Latin America being excluded in early postcolonial discourse. When speaking about Latin American countries, the term "postcolonial" often refers to the political and economic conditions following the decolonization of the Americas in the nineteenth century. However, to provide context, Latin America largely gained its independence from European rule before many countries within African and Asia had even become colonized. Thus, Postcolonial theorists, such as Edward Saids, have excluded Latin America, believing that postcolonialism:

"...centers on British and French imperialism from the late nineteenth century to the present ; its geographical focus is limited to an area stretching from Algeria to India ; and the role of the United States is restricted to the post Second World War period, disregarding this nation's origin as a colonial settlement of Britain, Spain, and France, the processes of internal colonialism through which Native Americans were subjected within its territory, and its imperial designs in the Americas and elsewhere from the nineteenth century to the present."

Klor de Alva further argues that colonialism and postcolonialism are "(Latin) American mirages" and can only be applied to marginal indigenous populations, opposed to the major non-native core that has formed the largely European societies of the American territories since the sixteenth century.

Some scholars have also challenged the appropriateness of the term "colonialism" when referring to Latin America. In the early twentieth century, Marxist discourse would use the term "dependency theory" to describe Latin American social thought. However, in his book Postcolonialism: an historical introduction, Critical theorist Robert J. C. Young argues that transformations from the reconstruction of Latin American Marxism ideas "could be said to characterize postcolonial theory itself." According to Fernando Coronil, Young's book provides foundational importance for the role of postcolonialism in Latin America because it suggests renaming "postcolonialism" to "tricontinentalism." The term "Tricontinentalism' was named after the 1966 Tricontinental Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America that was held in Havana, and called for the deliberate joining of Latin America, Africa, and Asia in anti-colonial struggles . Following the conference, Tricontinental journal was established, which according to Young, provided the theoretical and political foundations for postcolonialism . Moreover, Young argues that " Postcolonialism was born with the Tricontinental."

According to Ania Loomba, Settler colonialism of Spain and Portugal in Latin America resulted in a high level of mixing and inter-marrying with native populations, which created a complex racial hierarchy of color, class, and gender. The co-habitation informed mixed social order, and could at times lead to complicated feelings of racial consciousness.

Writer and Historian, Gregorio Weinberg, attempted to develop a chronological framework that addressed Latin America's complex relationship with its own internal development and external influences. The framework consisted of three successive phases: "imposed Culture, "accepted culture," and "criticized or disputed culture." Imposed culture corresponds with the colonial era, while the accepted culture followed the emancipation from Spain and Portugal, and is characterized as "the assimilation of foreign cultural and philosophical tendencies by Latin American countries." According to Weinberg, the accepted culture phase ended around 1930, and coincided with global depression.

This reconstruction of ideas out of place on the basis of local contradictions has been central to Latin American Marxism. Such transformations could be said to characterize postcolonial theory itself.